Solutions to transfer mp3's to a USB stick effectively, without a PC?

[samcvan]

Hi,

Is there any good solutions out there that would allow me to transfer mp3's to a USB stick wirelessly? I'm using USB for music in my model 3 so whenever I want to add / remove songs from the USB stick, I need to take the stick home, do the transfer, and have to remember to take the stick to the car the next time or I'll be without my dashcam.

This feels like a very stupid way to do file transfer... I'm using an iPhone and I was hoping a solution exists that would allow me to wirelessly transfer my music files on the cloud (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc) to the USB stick while I was in the car.

Is there such a thing available? Like a USB hub that can connect to WiFi? So the connection goes like this:

USB stick -> hub -> WiFi (personal hotspot from phone)

And then I'd use an iOS file management app for the hub that will allow me to connect to my cloud drive to download music to the USB stick plugged in to the hub.

I searched online and wasn't able to find such a thing... any help will be appreciated!

 

[davewill]

If you had Android, you could have just plugged your existing stick directly into your phone. But with iPhone, that won't work. Here's a WiFi enabled USB stick:

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Air...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FYKWVJXF6T9KXS6TP7SM

You'll probably still have to unplug the stick to access it wirelessly.

 

[PoitNarf]

The upcoming iOS 13 will finally support USB storage: How to use a Kindle with the iOS 13 files app - 9to5Mac

So you’ll probably be able to do this with iOS 13 on your iPhone. This should also help with accessing TeslaCam / Sentry Mode videos directly from an iPhone.

 

[PURE NRG]

USB stick with built in WiFi AP like what @davewill described above or get an iPhone OTG cable that allows you to plug a USB-A data device into your lightning port. Oh yeah, you’ll need to install the iOS 13 Beta as well as @PoitNarf stated.

 

[Wennfred]

This is what I use to expand or move files from the IPhone and back.

SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive 128GB for iPhone and iPad, Black/Silver, (SDIX30C-128G-GN6NE) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CIEBXZG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_O1VkDbPMTXXHW

 

[trm2]

The iXpand Wennfred mentioned will work, but if you are set on just wireless, I’ve been using one of these for years with my iPhone (my wife likes the iXpand more)

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Air...refix=Sandisk+wire,aps,157&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

 

[samcvan]

Hey thanks everyone! I can see how it'll work once iOS 13 is released because we then will have direct access to the external drive... then I just need an app that has file management system built in (like Apple's Files app) to transfer mp3's from the cloud.

But for iXpand - how does it work? Like in my scenario where I have my mp3's on the cloud, how do I transfer the mp3's to this stick? Like once I plug it in to my iPhone, does the iXpand Drive app let me connect to my cloud to download stuff to the stick? Or do I have to store the mp3's somehow on my iPhone first?

Airdisk - the wifi function only works when it's not plugged in, so it means when my iPhone is connected to its built in wifi my phone won't have internet access. I don't think this will work in this cloud <-> USB stick scenario.

 

[samcvan]

I upgraded my iOS to 13 and I can simply use the lightning to SD card reader by Apple (I'm using SD card + USB adapter for dashcam, sentry mode and music) and transfer my songs to the SD card from my cloud wirelessly. The app I use is the Files app that comes with iOS.

It's very easy and very fast. I assume you can also use the lightning to USB dongle by Apple if you use a simple USB stick for your dashcam. My SD card USB adapter draws too much power from the phone so the lightning to USB dongle doesn't work, so I had to buy the lightning to SD card reader instead.